Saturday, November 04, 2006

Durham DA poll commentary

Liestoppers and KC Johnson at Durham-in-Wonderland both post on poll results released yesterday by supporters of Louis Cheek.

Those results show a tight Durham DA‘s race with Cheek gaining strength and a very high percentage of undecideds/don’t knows (30% combined)

Comments:

Can there really be that high a percentage of undecs/dks just a few days before Election Day?

When I posted yesterday, I said that were a lot of them out there, at least judging by the folks I talk with.

Those people are a good Durham mix in terms of race, class, gender and age. In terms of political orientation, all of them fit somewhere on the liberal-independent- conservative spectrum. None are hard right or left.

As those people have started moving (again, just the ones I talk to), they’re moving to Cheek.

A neighbor and I were at our driveways getting our papers this morning. She’s been saying for months she doesn’t like the idea of “letting the Governor pick the DA when it’s our right to pick him.” But she walked over (very quickly, it’s cold here today) and said, “I’ve just decided the hell with it. I’m voting for Cheek. Nifong’s done too much wrong.”

KC Johnson says comparing the Cheek poll with one completed tow weeks ago by the N&O suggests:

the news of recent days (Nifong's admission that, despite his status as prosecutor and lead investigator for the case, he's never spoken to the accuser about her story, amidst revelations that the accuser was dancing in a most limber fashion at the time the authorities claim that she was in horrific pain from her attack) is having an effect.
He’s got that right. I’ve been hearing that everywhere I’ve gone during the past few days.

It’s Nifong’s failure to interview the accuser that’s bothering the people I talk with. They’re almost all decent people who are more concerned by the DA’s conduct than they are by the accuser’s actions, not that her actions don’t register on them with predictable effect.

For such people, Tuesday’s election isn’t about “Good Old Precious’” pole dancing. It’s about a DA whose actions many of them for the first time are starting to seriously question.

In a few hours my wife and I will be going with friends to the Georgia Tech – N.C. State game. We’ll do lots of tailgating so I’ll have a chance to get around and talk to many people.

I’ll post tomorrow around noon on what I hear and what I read in the papers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's what I thought - that the revelation that Nifong hasn't interviewed the accuser about the case yet would bother people. To anyone who stops and thinks about it for even a few seconds, it makes no sense at all. How can he not have interviewed the most important witness in his entire case about 8 months after the alleged incident?

Anonymous said...

i guess you only are talking to whites. the people i talk to are still supporting nifong and they live near east campus. the election will probably be down to the wire but who knows.